[Prsident Bush calls both Arafat and Sharon. Read photo caption below.]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush called on Israelis and Palestinians on Wednesday to make an ``all-out effort'' to stop their clashes and said he would send Secretary of State Colin Powell to the region to preserve a fragile cease-fire.
Bush made telephone calls to Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to urge them to honor a cease-fire agreement brokered last week by CIA Director George Tenet.
``The parties must continue to work on an all-out effort to bring peace,'' Bush told reporters after the telephone calls, which included a conversation with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. ``I said we're making some progress and that they all must continue to work toward breaking the cycle of violence.''
In all, five Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed since the cease-fire went into effect last Wednesday. At least 461 Palestinians, 116 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have died in violence that erupted last September after former President Bill Clinton failed to clinch a final peace accord.
Israel pledged on Wednesday to stick to the cease-fire deal, but said it would not fully lift its blockade of Palestinian towns and villages until attacks on Israelis stopped.
SLIGHT DEPARTURE FOR BUSH
Bush's decision to telephone Arafat marked a slight departure for the White House, which has held Arafat at arms length while demanding that he do more to stop the violence.
``The president urged Chairman Arafat to seize the moment and work with 100 percent effort to reduce violence and fight terrorism,'' U.S. National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack told Reuters after the 10-minute Bush-Arafat call.
Bush is scheduled to meet Sharon in Washington on Tuesday -- their second meeting since the Republican president took office on January 20 -- but he has yet to sit down with Arafat and the White House gave no indication that he would do so soon.
Bush had initially taken a more hands-off approach to the Middle East conflict than Clinton, but has become more engaged to try to halt what appeared to be a descent toward all-out war between Israelis and Palestinians.
On Wednesday he said he believed the two sides had made enough progress to warrant sending Powell to the region.
``It's an opportunity to go over there and see how that work (Tenet's work) is going and see if I have an opportunity to help push the process along,'' Powell told reporters.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns will head to the Middle East ahead of Powell, but officials declined to say where they would go or who they would meet.
``The president thinks it's very important for all parties in the region to seize the opportunity that has been created as a result of the mission that Director Tenet took to the Middle East that has created this fragile cease-fire,'' White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters at his daily briefing.
'UPSURGE IN VIOLENCE'
In the latest violence since the Tenet-brokered cease-fire began, a one Palestinian and one Jewish settler were shot dead in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.
``We are concerned about the upsurge in the violence in recent days. We think people have to redouble their efforts,'' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters when asked about Powell's trip. ``It's going to require good faith and sustained efforts to consolidate the cease-fire.''
In addition to calling Sharon and Arafat, the White House said Bush spoke to Mubarak and thanked him for his ''indispensable'' efforts to promote peace in the Middle East.
Israel and the Palestinians regard the cease-fire agreement as a first step in implementing a wider peace plan sketched by a committee led by former U.S. senator George Mitchell.
The Mitchell proposals envisage a cooling-off period -- the United States has suggested six weeks, the Palestinians two -- followed by confidence-building measures that include a freeze of building at Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.
``We cannot start (to carry out) Mitchell, the Mitchell plan, until the cycle of violence has been crushed and broken,'' Bush said on Wednesday.
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PHOTO CAPTION

President George W. Bush speaks to a Business Roundtable Meeting in the East Room of the White House, June 20, 2001. Bush called on Israelis and Palestinians to make an 'all-out effort' to stop their clashes and said he would send Secretary of State Colin Powell to the region to preserve a fragile cease-fire. (Larry Downing/Reuters)
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